Jan 4 Olivia West | Eleven Months

I can’t believe we are only one month away from Olivia’s first birthday. Compared to last month, her eleventh month was a breeze.

| STATS |

There isn’t an official eleven month checkup, but based on our own measurements she currently weighs in at 17lb, she is 28" long, and I have no idea how to measure her head.

| EATING |

This girl loves to eat. Now that all of the solo fruits and veggies have been tried (and loved) without any allergic reactions we are full steam ahead into the land of finger foods. I prepare 3 meals a day and sometimes a snack in the late afternoon depending on how her naps fall. I dove straight into finger foods, but will use the occasional puree in her oatmeal in the mornings (which is still spoon fed). But after the oatmeal-pocalypse of last month I still only give her oatmeal like once a week. Oatmeal constipation PTSD is real. We have added corn, rice, cheese, sweet potato, black beans, tomatoes, chick peas, and puffs to her menu. Before starting finger foods I wanted to have her practice with puffs so that it was less messy and less wasteful. I did a bunch of research to find puffs with the least sugar and additives, and the most nutrients. Sprout Quinoa Puffs are where it’s at. They only have 1g sugar per 1/3c and the only ingredients are organic flours, real fruits and veggies and rosemary as a preservative. She took to them very quickly and now I just use them as my secret weapon if she gets fussy when we’re out and about. For her meals I just cut up fruits and veggies super small (no larger than the width of her finger) and let her self feed. Since she only has her bottom two teeth, I make sure that everything is steamed / soft enough that I can squish it between my fingers which means she can squish it between her gums (which are freakishly strong by the way). Apples are the “hardest” food she eats and hasn’t had any issues with them. So far she does really well with this method. At the beginning she was just a bottomless pit, but now she’s starting to learn when she’s full. I’m still nursing when she wakes up, before every nap, and we give her a bottle of breastmilk before bed. This whole process has naturally lowered my supply so I feel like she’ll be weaning pretty soon, or I’ll be exclusively pumping. I can see her get frustrated at how little she gets each session. I still pump every night before I go to bed and I’m only pumping 3-4oz now when it used to be 8-10oz. I just don’t know if I’m ready for that transition and if she will nap well without getting to nurse before bed. We still have quite the back stock of frozen milk though so even if my supply plummets we’ll be okay for a while to help her slowly wean. But with the increase of solid food I feel like this is a natural progression and she won’t be as hungry or feel the need to nurse anymore. Maybe?

| SLEEPING |

Olivia is still sleeping like a champ. We have been pushing her awake times lately (especially on the weekends) and she has rolled with it very well. I still let her tell me when she’s ready for her nap rather than having her on a set schedule. She will literally stop playing, crawl into my lap, look up at me and say “mum mums” which means that she wants to nurse and go to bed. For the most part she sleeps for 1-2 hours 3x a day. But sometimes she’ll sleep for 2.5 hours in the morning and then 40min in the afternoon and that’s it. As long as she’s happy and content, I just let her do her thing until she’s tired. Sleep training is a magical thing, but sometimes I’m kind of sad that she is too conditioned to fall asleep while I hold her or when she’s in her stroller. BUT the other day my mom and I were out Christmas shopping and I had her in my Solly wrap and she fell asleep in it while we were walking around for a couple of hours. I could have melted. She hasn’t done this since she was probably 3 months old.

| DOING |

This girl loves to crawl. She is super fast now too! She will dart all over the house trying to find Geoffrey or whoever isn’t paying attention to her really. When she starts crawling after something she breathes really fast like she’s hyperventilating out of excitement. It’s the cutest. While Derek is getting ready for the day she will crawl into our room and “hoo” at him until he looks at her haha. She isn’t pulling up on furniture yet, but if we position her against it she will stand for a long time patting her hands on it and wiggling her butt. Santa brought her a wooden shopping cart for Christmas to encourage her to walk and she has taken a few steps with it so far. She’s kind of having a difficult time with the concept, It’s like her entire torso will contort and she will hang on for dear life before taking a single step to rebalance herself. She’s in no rush and will be ready when she’s ready. She also learned to clap! I have been working on this for months and then one day out of the blue she just started clapping! She mostly does it to music which is incredible, but also when she’s excited. Lately she started yelling. A lot. Whenever she’s hungry she doesn’t cry or fuss she just yells very loudly. I hope that once she get’s older and can reason a little more this will stop, but right now she is very demanding while you prep her food until it’s placed in front of her. Even picking her up or distracting her doesn’t work. Food is the only solution. Please tell me this is a phase.

| MILESTONES |

She is definitely learning what different words mean. I can say “do you want mum mums?” and she’ll repeat “mum mum mum mums” which means she wants to nurse. I can say “are you ready to go night night? and she will say “na na” and rub her eyes. Whenever we say “oh no George!” (her favorite book) she says “de de de de” every time. I can say “clap clap clap” without clapping and she will immediately start clapping. I can say “say bye to Geoffrey!” and she will wave. It’s kind of amazing. Learning to clap was a huge milestone, and basically my favorite thing ever. Also, getting her to enjoy solid foods and self feed has been such a huge moment for us. We celebrated her first Christmas and New Year together, which she enjoyed so much. She met Santa and absolutely hated him. She completed her first craft of hand print salt dough ornaments for her grandparents. She also attended her first holiday symphony and danced the entire time. We took her to the playground for the first time to test out the swings and she absolutely loved to swing! So much so that her Grammy and Grampy bought her a swing for her to use at their house. She said her first word which was drumrolllllllll….. MAMA! She had always just said mamamama or dadadadadada but one morning she crawled into my lap, looked up at me and said “Mama!” and my heart exploded. She is still wearing size 3 diapers 6-9m clothing. Our little peanut. In this photo she’s wearing 6-12m and you can see how baggy it is on her.

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

Sharing the Christmas season with her was my all time favorite moment this past month. We took her to do all of the Christmasy things and even drove around looking at lights while she “hoo-ed” in the backseat. I love when she claps and dances to music. She comes from a long line of musicians on her dad’s side of the family and this is very apparent even at such a young age. She starts up music class next week and I’m so excited!